1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and system to utilize an audio/video server in storing real time media data to one or more conventional storage devices and making this stored media data available to media playback devices on a network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Audio/video servers (e.g., audio/video streaming servers, and equivalents) can be used in many applications. These applications include controlling recording sessions and making recorded or stored audio/video data available to other devices. Such applications can involve audio and/or video transmissions over cable or other types of networks, or the transmission can be implemented by wireless transmissions. For example, some applications can include Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) audio/video applications, and these applications typically use UPnP AV Media Servers and UPnP Media Server Control Points.
UPnP AV Media Servers store and share digital media, such as photographs, movies, or music. There are UPnP Media Servers available for most operating systems and many hardware-platforms. UPnP AV Media Servers can either be categorized as software-based or hardware-based. Software-based UPnP AV Media Servers can be run on personals computers (PCs), mainly on Microsoft Windows, Linux, BSD, Unix or Mac OS X. Hardware-based UPnP AV Media Servers may run on any NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices or any specific hardware for delivering media, such as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a prior art network with a PVR, in accordance with the prior art. This block diagram includes a PVR 100 with a built-in Storage Module 110 and one or more UPnP Media Server Control Points 158 on the Network 140. The PVR system 100 can handle recording of real time media data. The disadvantages of this prior art include: there is no live video streaming function to other devices on the Network 140, the Storage Module 110 is built-in adding an extra cost to a PVR 100, there is limited storage capacity (additional memory cannot be added easily), and the entire unit needs to be replaced if the Storage Module 110 fails. The PVR 100 can provide a recoding function from a live audio/video source (e.g., a TV broadcast) for later playback. One of the most widely known examples of a PVR is TiVO®.
FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a prior art network with a dedicated device interface, in accordance with the prior art. This prior art includes a Dedicated Device Interface 102 (e.g., a NSLU2 Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives), one Storage Module 110 attached to a USB port of the Dedicated Device Interface 102 and one or more UPnP Media Server Control Points 158 on the Network 140. This prior art approach converts the Storage Module 110 into an UPnP AV Media Server. However, this prior art approach has the following disadvantages: only USB hard drives are supported (there is no IEEE 1934, Ethernet, or equivalent standardized network connectivity), there is no media recording function to the hard drive, and there is no live video streaming function to other devices on the Network 140.
FIG. 3. illustrates a simplified block diagram of a prior art network with a NAS drive 170 and one or more UPnP Media Server Control Points 158 on the Network 140, in accordance with the prior art. This type of network can make media files available to UPnP Media Server Control Points 158 on the Network 140. However, this prior art approach has the following disadvantages: there is no media recording function, there is no live video streaming function to other devices on the Network 140, if the memory inside the NAS drive 170 fails then the entire NAS drive 170 must be replaced, there is only a fixed memory capacity, and the NAS drive 170 cannot be upgraded with more memory capacity by attaching additional general purpose storage devices.
Essentially, a NAS drive system is a file-level computer data storage coupled to a computer network. There is an operating system and other software on the NAS unit to provide the functionality of data storage, data access, and the management of these functions. In other words, NAS systems are server appliances. Often minimal-functionality or stripped-down operating systems are used on NAS systems. NAS systems usually contain one or more hard disks, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAIDs (redundant arrays of independent disks). NAS systems remove the responsibility of file serving from other servers on the network. It should be noted that a NAS system is effectively a server in itself, with all major components of a typical PC—a CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is an improved method and system to make a standard storage module available on a network for media recording and playback.